24-04-2025
Nolusindiso Booi has paved the way for the next generation of Bok Women
The Springbok Women skipper has travelled a long road to the top and will conclude her journey at rugby's pinnacle later this year.
It took Nolusindiso Booi less than a year to go from picking up a rugby ball for the first time to playing provincial rugby. And four years after learning to catch and pass she made her debut for the national team.
Her rapid rise speaks to both the incredible talent of the now skipper as well as the lack of depth, at the time, of the Springbok Women.
Almost exactly 15 years since her debut, Booi earned her 50th cap for the Bok Women in the side's 48-26 drubbing of Spain last weekend.
In the process she became the first Springbok Woman player to reach the milestone.
Booi's debut match, against Kazakhstan at the Al Ain Rugby Club in Dubai in 2010, was at a time when interest in the women's game was nearly nonexistent in South Africa. Her career would include the team performances being so dire that SA Rugby would withdraw the national team from international rugby.
And at the tail end of Booi's career the Bok team have never been better and have never had more support. Booi has seen and lived through it all, while buckling down in the middle of the scrum and jumping highest in the lineout while leading her side with the flag of the country on her chest.
While the Springbok Women's growth, on the field and commercially, is trending upward, Booi won't be there when they reach their pinnacle, since the 39-year-old plans to hang up her boots at the conclusion of the Rugby World Cup in August and September.
From Xesi to the Boks
Her journey with the oval ball started as a 20-year-old at the University of Fort Hare in Alice in the Eastern Cape. She was walking between classes when one of the rugby coaches spotted her lanky figure and knew she would be a perfect fit for the university's second row.
But the physical game was initially unfamiliar to Booi who had grown up playing cricket in the streets of her village of Trust Three in the small town of Xesi with her male family members.
'I never had any idea what rugby was because back in my village we only knew cricket,' Booi told Daily Maverick.
'Everyone was playing cricket, like my uncles and everyone and my brothers were involved in cricket. I grew up in that kind of environment and I started to fall in love with cricket.'
But the opportunities that arose from playing rugby gripped Booi immediately.
'From the first time that I played the first game I was sure that this is what I want to do,' she said.
'It was fun for me because there was a lot of travelling, something that I was not used to because I grew up in a village and I never got a chance to travel from province to province.
'When I saw that there are people that are playing for the national team, my interests got bigger. I wanted to play for the national team as well.'
Booi's transition into the sport was made easier by her athleticism built from other sports she played growing up. Outside of the hand-eye coordination from playing cricket, she was also a sprinter and did long jump in high school. Combined with her tall frame, this made her the perfect candidate for the No 5 jersey in the national team. A jersey she has held for the better part of 15 years, along with captaining the team.
World Cup goals
With a lack of real financial investment in the Springbok Women, the side struggled on the international stage, winning only one group-stage match across both the 2010 and 2014 Rugby World Cups – in which Booi played – forcing SA Rugby to rethink the side.
After the 2014 World Cup SA Rugby withdrew the national women's team from international rugby, instead opting to focus on grassroots development to ensure the team would be more competitive when they rejoined.
While it meant that the women's rugby system has improved in the country, it has also meant that Booi missed the opportunity to add several more national team caps to her name as well as missing the 2017 World Cup during her prime rugby-playing days in her late twenties.
The Boks returned to the biggest women's rugby tournament in 2022 but again failed to win a match. Since then, however, investment in the game has increased significantly, including hiring one of the country's brightest rugby minds, Swys de Bruin, as coach.
Young talent has also been unearthed within the side, with Booi's lock-forward partner, Vainah Ubisi, being one of the breakthrough players for the team in 2024.
Their results have been on an upward trajectory too, which includes running the much higher-rated Australia (26-33) and Italy (19-23) extremely close in the same year.
South Africa are in a group with France, Italy and Brazil at this year's World Cup. Two out of three wins would see them reach the knockout stage for the first time.
'Everyone that is going to the World Cup, their aim is to win the World Cup, but with us we're just taking baby steps,' skipper Booi said.
The talk out of the Bok Women camp is that the quarterfinals are the big goal for the side.
'When you reach those quarters and you play there, you don't know what might happen next,' Booi added. 'If you win, you go through.'
